Hundreds of people have paid an emotional tribute to a young US-Israeli soldier killed in the October 7 attack by Hamas and whose death was only confirmed on Monday, AFP reports.

People cried and embraced Tuesday at a packed Jewish community centre in Syosset, on Long Island to the east of New York, as they remembered Omer Neutra, who was born in New York and emigrated to Israel, eventually joining the army. He died at age 21.

The Israeli army said Neutra died in the Hamas attack on Israel and that his body had been held in Gaza since then and is still there.

President Joe Biden said on Monday he was “devastated and outraged” by the death of the young soldier, whose body was held while his family and the authorities had presumed he was being held hostage.

That November, the parents of the soldier told AFP they were living in a “parallel universe” and counting on help from Biden, who had met with families of US hostages in Gaza.